The Department of Defense has an enormous presence in Hawaii, so despite the islands’ isolation, it’s not surprising that Tripler Army Medical Center would be one of 16 initial DOD sites to distribute the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for COVID-19.

The three other locations outside the continental U.S. are in Korea, Germany and Japan. All sites have cold storage capability, many active-duty and reserve military and civilian defense employees to get the shots, and the right medical specialists on site.